Korean Taekwondo Master in Action

[Qanths]

We recently had a Taekwondo (Korean martial art) demonstration in our region by the Kukkiwon (the best Taekwondo team in the world, trained in Korea). It was full of Taekwondo masters jumping all over the place and breaking wood. I took this photo right before he broke the piece of wood. This is one of my best shots.

How do you like my composition?
Do you think the people watching in the back ruin this photo or do you think the photo isn't ruined by them as long as it's for a newspaper?
I think there is enough contrast between the white wearing Taekwondo masters and the dark crowd, do you?

Here is the EXIF data:
Nikon D5000
55mm
ISO 3200
1/100s
f/4.2

H.S.

Photography at Work

[GadgetRick]

Originally Posted by Qanths

We recently had a Taekwondo (Korean martial art) demonstration in our region by the Kukkiwon (the best Taekwondo team in the world, trained in Korea). It was full of Taekwondo masters jumping all over the place and breaking wood. I took this photo right before he broke the piece of wood. This is one of my best shots.

How do you like my composition?
Do you think the people watching in the back ruin this photo or do you think the photo isn't ruined by them as long as it's for a newspaper?
I think there is enough contrast between the white wearing Taekwondo masters and the dark crowd, do you?

Here is the EXIF data:
Nikon D5000
55mm
ISO 3200
1/100s
f/4.2

H.S.

Photography at Work

I think the composition is fine. One thing you have to remember about sports photography is, the composition isn't as important as it is in other forms of photography because your subjects are (often) moving so quickly, you don't really have time to properly compose a shot.

I also like this with the crowd in the background as it gives some depth and shows how large an event this was. That doesn't bother me on this shot.

I'd like to see a faster shutter speed as the motion blur in his foot is no problem but there's blur in his body because of how quickly he's moving. Not sure what you were shooting with but, if you could open the aperture a bit, you'd get a faster shutter speed.

[wamplers]

I would crop closer to isolate the action better. Also, 1/100 is just too slow to freeze action. You need a larger aperture, or a way to light the arena better to get a faster shutter speed.

[Qanths]

Thanks for all the comments but I wasn't aiming for a freeze shot. Lighting was bad since the event was at night, I was using an ISO of 3200, my aperture was at the widest at the focal length I was using. I didn't want to take a chance and make my ISO 6400 since I would have digital noise. So I decided to take blur shots instead of freeze shots whereby you can actually see the movement the subject is making.


H.S.

Photography at Work

[wulf]

I think a bit of motion blur is fine - your speed is enough that the man holding the board is pretty sharp and so a contrast to the blur of the Taekwondo master.

Including the crowd is also good for giving some context to the event. One of the challenges is that lots of other people are also taking pictures (I bet the number is higher than it would have been at a similar event ten or twenty years ago!). At that range flash is useless; fortunately you've picked a moment when only one person was trying to use it! More flashes could draw attention from the main action. I do wonder though if it really helps having the crowd on an angle; have you tried rotating the image so they are level and the action of contrasting angles is all with the performers?

Also, what lenses did you have available? Could you have zoomed in closer and / or used a wider aperture? There might have been better options but it depends on the gear available.

Wulf

[Qanths]

I used a 55-200mm AF-S VR f/4-5.6 Nikkor. I could have zoomed in more but then I would have to make the aperture smaller and my lighting was poor enough already for 1/100s shutter speed shots. My aperture (according to Picasa by google) was f/4.2, almost the widest it can go. It's amazing how at 1/100s I was able to capture a camera's flash, must be coincidence. I tried rotating it as you suggested, it turned out great! Although I still like it this way too. I feel that the uneven angle adds a hectic feeling to the image somehow emphasizing the speed at which the master was kicking the wood.

Thank you!

H.S.

Photography at Work

[wulf]

The perfect moment would have been a fraction of a second later as he hit the wood and it began to break. Burst mode is the way to go to increase the chance of getting shots of the right instant.

Have you got any more competitions coming up soon (and any alternative lenses you could try)?

Wulf

[GadgetRick]

I don't mind motion blur (actually like it), however, in this case it's a bit distracting because it's not enough to actually look like motion blur (in the body) unless you look closely. Just kinda looks out of focus.